20 
Robert Bakewell. 
and 1785 notes on visits to Mr. Bakewell at Dishley. It was 
this : “ The poorer the land the more it demands a well-made 
sheep ” ; that no land was too bad for a good breed of sheep ; 
and that in places where a large-boned animal would be almost 
useless, a well-made one of smaller bone would do well. This 
opinion he was prepared to support by a moderate wager, “ that 
his own breed — each sheep of which is worth several of those of 
poor sorts — would do better on poor soils than the stock generally 
found on them.” This, no doubt, is true, certain conditions 
granted ; and attentively examined it enables us the better to 
understand what Bakewell’ s work really was, and to appreciate 
his improvement. It was improvement obtained not so much by 
what he put into the animal as by effective modification of the 
animal’s structure ; not so much by generous feeding (although 
he kept his best breeding-stock in high condition) as by the 
production of an animal capable of turning any food into the 
most profitable product. You cannot eat bone, he argued ; 
therefore substitute for bone the muscle and fat which you can 
eat. The same cost of food for your stock will give you either 
bone or flesh, and the food diverted from the production of the 
one can be directed to the production of the other. 
The advance of improvement upon Bakewell’s lines, since 
Bakewell’s day, and the application of his system in the modifi- 
cation of many breeds, have opened and solved further questions. 
Whilst we still grant that on the poorest lands the stock may 
be improved up to the sustaining capability of the land, we are 
obliged by the overwhelming proofs afforded by later experiment 
to qualify the theory of Bakewell. If a breed of cattle, or of 
sheep, so highly improved that it can do full justice to the 
richest land, be kept through several consecutive generations 
with no better support than that of very poor land, much of the 
improvement is wasted and lost. The quality of the breed drops 
down to the level of the quality of the land. 
Arthur Young, on the occasion of his second visit, in 1785, 
records an experiment conducted by a young Russian living at 
Dishley, Bakewell not having time to attend to it himself. 
On March 19 six rams, respectively of the Durham, Wilts, 
Norfolk, Dishley, Charnwood Forest, and Herefordshire breeds, 
were weighed, tied up in the sheep-house, and fed on turnips, 
their food weighed to them, and they again weighed at the end 
of the experiment on April 2. Particulars of the results as 
given by Young are incomplete, but the incident seems worthy 
of this notice as showing Bakewell’s habit of acquiring 
knowledge, even to a late period of his life, by experiment, and 
not merely by rough guessing. 
